Coming Home
by Salomedancing
Summary: Peri is saved by King Yrcanos, but being saved doesn't equals being happy.


**AN: I always felt sorry for Peri, but I don't think Yrcanos was so bad. Even if he was very loud. But what can you do when you are being played by BRIAN BLESSED? I hope you will enjoy it!**

King Yrcanos saved his beautiful lady, but all she did was to cry. When she did speak, she either said she wanted to go home, or, in even more desolate tones; "He abandoned me. He just left."

No one knew where her home was and she didn't either, so he took her to his home, to his palace. The best rooms were given to her and the best food and any comfort she might name. By that time she had stopped crying, but to his dismay she looked at him with contempt.

"So, what now? I suppose you want me, like everyone else."

"I would be honoured to call you my Queen."

"A fancier word, sure, but it boils down to the same thing, doesn't it? Well, what are you waiting for? It's not like I can do anything to stop you!"

Her voice was shrill and defiant, but to his horror he could see real fear lurking in her eyes.

"Take you against your will? Take any woman with force? That is not the conduct of an honourable warrior!"

Her voice wavered. "You mean you won't make me?"

"Never, my lady!"

She stopped being afraid for him then, but she was still so miserable. Yrcanos visited her every day, trying to think of gifts that would light her heart. He was not a man for whom this was easy. He told her stories about his glorious victories, but they failed to excite her. He brought in minstrels and musicians, but she took no notice. And he racked his brain and asked advice from his most trusted friends, but nothing brought back the light to her eyes. When he first saw her she had been vibrant and colourful, now she seemed to grew paler by the day. Her dark eyes that had sparkled at him, in joy, anger or even exasperation, were dull now, without hope.

Yrcanos would happily kill that threatened her, but he could not kill the unhappiness that devoured her from inside.

Every day when he came she sat by the window. Never doing anything, just sitting there and staring out in the distance. Her dark hair had started to grow out, forming a silky soft pelt, and he wished he could touch it.

"My lady, will you walk with me?"

"Of course," she said, as she did to anything he suggested. He had taken her to see everything worth seeing on Thoros Alpha, but he wasn't sure she had actually noticed anything of it.

Now she followed him in silence while he took her down the stairs, to a backdoor that lead, not to a splendid courtyard, but to the stables. There, in a box, two small puppies lay in a basket, weeping blindly as the crawled over each other. Peri suddenly pushed past him and knelt by their side.

"Where is their mother? The poor things are crying!"

"She died. Too old to have puppies, I suppose." He blinked, for some reason his eyes stung. "She was my favourite."

Yrcanos watched Peri coo over the puppies, cradling them in her lap. He waved at a groom who was standing ready with warmed milk bottles.

"I would rear them myself, but I'm afraid I'm too clumsy." He spreads his hands, so large, more used to holding a sword than a fragile life. "I thought perhaps you could consider taking care of them?"

"Oh yes!" Peri said with the first sign of animation he had seen since Thoros Beta. "Can I take them to my room?"

"This is your home now, my lady. You can do whatever you wish."

And Peri didn't contradict him with a vehement declaration that this place could never be her home. Instead she looked up at him.

"I think you can feed them if you are careful. Here, I show you."

He knelt beside her and Peri guided his hand so he could feed one of the puppies while she fed the other. Her hand was so small over his, but its gentleness seem to spread through it, so he could handle the small dog as careful as she did.

When they had eaten the puppies fell asleep in Peri's arms and she looked up at him. A small smile flickered over her face and for a brief instant it lit her eyes and his heart made a somersault inside his chest.

"Thank you," Peri said.


End file.
